Apart from the standard backup/restore/migrate functionality BackupBuddy does have a built-in search/replace capability that can be used on the database tables - this capability does handle serialized data in the database. As doing such operations on a live site database are always risky we would be able to recommend ways to minimise the risk.

Regards...jeremy

"Everything will be all right in the end. If it isn't all right yet then it isn't the end."

It's just a basic search/replace operation (no complex patterns or anything like that but just this string for that string) with the option to choose the table to apply it to or all tables so there isn't any specific documentation for this. It uses the same underlying process as is used during a migration for updating urls but just let's you specify the strings.

As far as minimising risk - we all make mistakes so there is always a risk that, for example, you'll specify the search and/or replace strings badly and could end up with an unintended result that actually breaks the site (we can't stop that happening). So you'd want to approach this in a way that you can rollback if you mess something up, so we can advise on that - I'd hope that any utility offering this capability would be able to offer similar advise. Personally when dealing with live sites I always operate from the viewpoint that something will go wrong (particularly if I've never done the operation before) so I can recover in a planned way if necessary rather than in an unplanned way if that is even possible.

Regards...jeremy

"Everything will be all right in the end. If it isn't all right yet then it isn't the end."